Do not stop for death, we kindly stop for you.

Intelle Blue

New Member

I'm writing a concept screenplay for a tv show, and the pilot episode includes a coat of arms with what I want to be a Latin motto. It doesn't have to be a word-for-word translation, but I still want the sentiment of the phrase to be the same.
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Milwaukee
What is that sentiment? Is the implication that the bearers of this coat of arms are themselves like death? As in:
'Don't make an effort to indulge death, because we (who essentially are death) will come to you.'
 
E

Etaoin Shrdlu

Guest

One wonders what Emily Dickinson would have thought of it all.
 

Intelle Blue

New Member

What is that sentiment? Is the implication that the bearers of this coat of arms are themselves like death? As in:
'Don't make an effort to indulge death, because we (who essentially are death) will come to you.'
I guess I was a little vague. The sentiment is the original phrase, meaning that when translated from Latin, a person would think, “Oh, like the Emily Dickinson poem.”

But the sentiment in the way you are referring to is, “Don't worry about being ready for death. When it's time, you will be ready.”
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Milwaukee
Don't worry about being ready for death. When it's time, you will be ready.
I guess I don't see how those two agree.

Just in the way the Dickinson poem equates (personifies) death with some masculine entity, your quote equates 'death' with 'we', & so it can't be a general statement about 'being ready for death when it comes'. Am I right at least in supposing this motto is meant to give crusader-like peace of mind to the bearers, who are ready to lay their lives down in the service of 'you'?

I suppose whether I get it or not makes little difference.
tu ne cedas morti: libenter cedimus ipsi
 

Intelle Blue

New Member

I guess I don't see how those two agree.

Just in the way the Dickinson poem equates (personifies) death with some masculine entity, your quote equates 'death' with 'we', & so it can't be a general statement about 'being ready for death when it comes'. Am I right at least in supposing this motto is meant to give crusader-like peace of mind to the bearers, who are ready to lay their lives down in the service of 'you'?

I suppose whether I get it or not makes little difference.
tu ne cedas morti: libenter cedimus ipsi
You actually hit the nail right on the head. In the show, the main characters are the Grimm family, and the patriarch of the family, Marcus Grimm, is the Grimm Reaper, who we know as the Grim Reaper. Just as a king passes down his crown, he must give his title to another when he retires, and that “another” is his daughter, Jan Grimm.
 
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